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It's hard to believe that it's been nearly nine years since Nintendo first launched the Virtual Console, finally offering a legal way to download select games from out-of-print consoles on the Wii (and, later, the 3DS and Wii U as well). That means gamers have been spending nearly nine years now complaining about the limited selection of classic titles that are available for download on the service and the slow pace of those downloadable rereleases.

Now, there are some indications that Nintendo is completely finished rereleasing digital games for some of its classic systems. In a pair of recent tweets, niche publisher Natsume (perhaps best known for the Harvest Moon series) said that Nintendo has "moved on" from publishing Virtual Console games from the original Game Boy and Super NES, specifically. "There's no further SNES games coming from us," one tweet reads. "Nintendo has moved on to other classic systems."

Natsume has been a big supporter of the Virtual Console and is currently in the process of bringing eight older Game Boy Advance titles to the Wii U. So they'd seem to be in some position to know Nintendo's thoughts on the matter. Speaking to Ars Technica, though, Natsume VP of Operations Graham Markay made it clear that "we don't know what Nintendo's plans are," and that the tweets weren't based on any insider information or official notification from Nintendo.

That said, Markay told us that any decision to rerelease games on the Virtual Console was a collaboration between Nintendo and the original publisher. That, combined with Natsume's tweets, hints that Nintendo might be the bottleneck for some rereleases that Natsume and others want to pursue, though Markay wasn't willing to say as much directly (Nintendo wasn't immediately available to comment, but we'll update if and when they get back to us).

Markay also pointed out that, "looking historically," Nintendo's interest in Virtual Console rereleases seems to be gravitating away from older systems and toward more recent consoles like the Game Boy Advance and Nintendo DS. That's only somewhat true. Nintendo released SNES title The Ignition Factor on the Wii U Virtual Console last month and rereleased NES cult classic River City Ransom in October. Both consoles have seen a slow drip of almost a dozen Virtual Console releases on the Wii U this year.

The Nintendo 3DS' Virtual Console hasn't seen any new releases since February, but the latest offerings were three Donkey Kong Land titles first released on the original Game Boy.

What's the hold up?

Enlarge/ Not all of these consoles may see an expanding Virtual Console roster for much longer.

While many people think releasing a Virtual Console game is as simple as throwing an old ROM file onto Nintendo's servers, the process isn't quite that simple. For one, as Markay told us, a lot depends on the legal language behind the original, decades-old license agreements and who owns the rights to rerelease the game. For another, Nintendo says it has to do a fair bit of work to get the games ready for rerelease, including digital manuals and technical/standards checks.

"Development of Virtual Console titles require detailed manual work, such as testing if the software runs smoothly on each platform, or making sure the content is appropriate under the various standards currently in place," late Nintendo President Satoru Iwata said at a shareholder's meeting this summer. "...If we use much of our human resources on such detailed manual work, we would not be able to develop new titles, so we are currently researching how we can efficiently develop Virtual Console titles with limited human resources."

Whether or not Nintendo is ready to officially close down the flow of downloadable rereleases from certain classic consoles, it's hard to see much enthusiasm for the concept from the company. Even without any legal impediments from rights holders, it would take decades to make the full libraries of systems like the NES, SNES, and Game Boy available on modern Virtual Consoles at Nintendo's current release rates. Still, for fans of classic gaming, it would be a bit sad to see those rereleases go from a low priority to no priority for Nintendo.

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Kyle Orland
Kyle is the Senior Gaming Editor at Ars Technica, specializing in video game hardware and software. He has journalism and computer science degrees from University of Maryland. He is based in the Washington, DC area. Emailkyle.orland@arstechnica.com//Twitter@KyleOrl

But, this raises a question: in order to experience old, out-of-print titles that didn't make it onto the Virtual Console, does that mean piracy is now the only option? Or, will we get some way to preserve the games of yore, from someone?

Nintendo did a wonderful job cornering the market on older games with the Wii. Old Nintendo titles long forgotten were brought to a new generation of gamers. And classic titles from the original NES saw multiple releases and enhancements over the years showing just how good they were to span multiple decades.

And Nintendo is abandoning this market. Bet their lawyers will still be going after people for copyright violations.

Preservation of old games (aside from DRM/activation server considerations we face today) and the inability to legally load ROMs of games that are 20-30 years old is an artificial issue manufactured by absurd copyright terms.

Some of the older games such as Ducktails and Final Fantasy are getting released as iOS/Android(TV) games, but it would be good to see this happen for more games.

I'd be willing to pay a flat rate for rights to all NES/SNES roms, or some subscription service if they could be made all available legally with the proper owners receiving the money as you play those games. Since this isn't the case, well, there are other options. Our old SNES's work fine, as does the PS1 and NES, but it's much more convenient playing the games on the shield tv.

Nastume is always stirring up stuff like this. They really don't know what they are talking about. They've made proclamations in the past and been wrong. When they say "Nintendo isn't interested in publishing any more SNES or Game boy titles" what that really means is Nintendo isn't interested in publishing any of Natsume's SNES or Game boy titles at the moment.

Does that tweet mean Nintendo is abandoning unreleased Game Boy and SNES titles, so they can be legally downloaded?

In America, anything 1987 and before is beyond the original copyright limit of 28 years. I have no qualms in copying these files because extensions to copyright have robbed us of public domain content and of new works being created.

Does that tweet mean Nintendo is abandoning unreleased Game Boy and SNES titles, so they can be legally downloaded?

In America, anything 1987 and before is beyond the original copyright limit of 28 years. I have no qualms in copying these files because extensions to copyright have robbed us of public domain content and of new works being created.

If this turns out to be true, then the claimed reasoning of the folly of diverting precious resources to digital manual creation and playtesting to make sure they work on modern tech can only serve to piss off anyone fond of these older titles. Even if there wasn't a manual at all for a given game, any game, would that prevent me from buying, downloading and playing it? Not to mention the primary market for these older games (and the people in households in control of paying and doing the actual downloading) has got to be consumers who remember them from days of yore and aren't likely to peruse a manual for help anyways. FFS, just scan them in and make them look as pretty as you can that way: I'm already playing a 8/16-bit game in case you hadn't noticed, N. And making sure they work well enough on current tech... I mean we all knew the U was the weakest system of the bunch but...

Does that tweet mean Nintendo is abandoning unreleased Game Boy and SNES titles, so they can be legally downloaded?

In America, anything 1987 and before is beyond the original copyright limit of 28 years. I have no qualms in copying these files because extensions to copyright have robbed us of public domain content and of new works being created.

Interesting. One of the reasons I was considering picking up a Wii U was the virtual console. The backwards compatibility was one of my primary factors. I don't have as much time for gaming, so for me, it'd mostly be a retro box, plus newer Zelda/SB games.

Seems like I should hold off to see if this is true. Might save me some money.

Does that tweet mean Nintendo is abandoning unreleased Game Boy and SNES titles, so they can be legally downloaded?

In America, anything 1987 and before is beyond the original copyright limit of 28 years. I have no qualms in copying these files because extensions to copyright have robbed us of public domain content and of new works being created.

1978, not 1987. NES and SNES games do not apply.

1978 was 37 years ago, 1987 was 28 years ago.

The copyright term was changed, effective Jan 1, 1978, not 1987.

Prior to 1978, copyright terms were renewable terms of 28 years. After 1978, copyright terms are much, much longer.

Does that tweet mean Nintendo is abandoning unreleased Game Boy and SNES titles, so they can be legally downloaded?

I'm no lawyer, but the tweet alone is undoubtedly insufficient to demonstrate abandonment.

Furthermore, Nintendo repeatedly demonstrates that they take copyright infringement too seriously and would still pursue legal action in this regard if possible.

That said, emulation has been and will continue be the only way to experience most classic games.

Yep. It's pretty much like what Disney does with their classic feature films. There is a concept of the "Disney Vault". Each film is released for a while, then goes "back in the vault", and isn't available for a certain period.

So, "Snow White" may not be available for purchase for years, then it will be re-released in a new, remastered version ("BluRay Diamond Edition!"), to much fanfare. The idea is that fans go out and purchase it again, and a new generation sees the publicity and are interested in a way that may not occur if it was just a generally-available, old film.

Of course, in the years where the film isn't available, used prices skyrocket, and piracy is rampant. But it's their film, and their release strategy.

Some of the older games such as Ducktails and Final Fantasy are getting released as iOS/Android(TV) games, but it would be good to see this happen for more games.

Unfortunately, as great a developer as WayForward is, games released on iOS/Android often become abandonware themselves within a year or two and never see fixes as software and hardware incompatibilities stack up, not to mention third-party services they might have relied on, like OpenFeint, shutting down. It's likely that a majority of past iOS/Android games no longer work or only work with glitches on a current phone with iOS 9 or Lollipop.

Same for the PC world; many late 90's and 00's games simply won't run right on a post-Vista system, or only will with extensive tweaking and patching, until emulation eventually catches up. VirtualBox still has a long way to go in D3D support. HD remasters with full compatibility is the best, but eventually they're going to suffer bitrot too. It's the curse of games to rarely be supported long after release.

If this turns out to be true, then the claimed reasoning of the folly of diverting precious resources to digital manual creation and playtesting to make sure they work on modern tech can only serve to piss off anyone fond of these older titles. Even if there wasn't a manual at all for a given game, any game, would that prevent me from buying, downloading and playing it? Not to mention the primary market for these older games (and the people in households in control of paying and doing the actual downloading) has got to be consumers who remember them from days of yore and aren't likely to peruse a manual for help anyways. FFS, just scan them in and make them look as pretty as you can that way: I'm already playing a 8/16-bit game in case you hadn't noticed, N. And making sure they work well enough on current tech... I mean we all knew the U was the weakest system of the bunch but...

Nintendo shouldn't botch its commitment to quality by basically pumping out ROMs. However, they should absolutely be hiring more staff to speed up the releases, if the time sunk is affecting their primary development, otherwise they're throwing revenue away. It's not like there's zero unemployment among creatives and clerical staff in Japan or the US. I don't even know why they'd be tasking primary developers to VC releases in the first place.

I think Nintendo just doesn't put more than a minimal effort into VC anymore because they know that faced with a huge library of old games, people are buying less... particularly because Nintendo just can't seem to do online services right. At all. Even today, eight years later, browsing the VC market is clunky and annoying. Steam has led the way in digital sales for over a decade, but to this day Nintendo won't even put a single one of its older releases on sale to drive a boost in interest, let alone reducing prices to target more than the early adopters.

So I guess I shouldn't expect Super Metroid to ever make the jump from Wii U to 3ds?

Pretty sure SNES titles were never going to make it to the 3DS anyway, certainly the original 3DS/XL/2DS wouldn't have the power to run them to the standard Nintendo would want them to run at. (New 3DS probably has enough power but I doubt Nintendo would want to segment the market so strongly as to limit SNES Virtual Console to New 3DS systems only.)

Does that tweet mean Nintendo is abandoning unreleased Game Boy and SNES titles, so they can be legally downloaded?

In America, anything 1987 and before is beyond the original copyright limit of 28 years. I have no qualms in copying these files because extensions to copyright have robbed us of public domain content and of new works being created.

1978, not 1987. NES and SNES games do not apply.

1978 was 37 years ago, 1987 was 28 years ago.

The copyright term was changed, effective Jan 1, 1978, not 1987.

Prior to 1978, copyright terms were renewable terms of 28 years. After 1978, copyright terms are much, much longer.

Exactly, and PRMan is [reasonably] taking the stance not to respect copyrights beyond the 28-year terms.

Some of the older games such as Ducktails and Final Fantasy are getting released as iOS/Android(TV) games, but it would be good to see this happen for more games.

Unfortunately, as great a developer as WayForward is, games released on iOS/Android often become abandonware themselves within a year or two and never see fixes as software and hardware incompatibilities stack up, not to mention third-party services they might have relied on, like OpenFeint, shutting down. It's likely that a majority of past iOS/Android games no longer work or only work with glitches on a current phone with iOS 9 or Lollipop.

Same for the PC world; many late 90's and 00's games simply won't run right on a post-Vista system, or only will with extensive tweaking and patching, until emulation eventually catches up. VirtualBox still has a long way to go in D3D support. HD remasters with full compatibility is the best, but eventually they're going to suffer bitrot too. It's the curse of games to rarely be supported long after release.

Correct although virtualization vendors are working on 3D support. That's how things like Nvidia's "Geforce Now" work.

So I guess I shouldn't expect Super Metroid to ever make the jump from Wii U to 3ds?

Pretty sure SNES titles were never going to make it to the 3DS anyway, certainly the original 3DS/XL/2DS wouldn't have the power to run them to the standard Nintendo would want them to run at. (New 3DS probably has enough power but I doubt Nintendo would want to segment the market so strongly as to limit SNES Virtual Console to New 3DS systems only.)

I believe you are vastly overestimating the hardware of the original SNES. I recommend consulting Wikipedia for various systems' processing power. The DS line may have crappy resolution by today's smartphone standards, but they are generations ahead of 1990-1 technology.

Does that tweet mean Nintendo is abandoning unreleased Game Boy and SNES titles, so they can be legally downloaded?

In America, anything 1987 and before is beyond the original copyright limit of 28 years. I have no qualms in copying these files because extensions to copyright have robbed us of public domain content and of new works being created.

1978, not 1987. NES and SNES games do not apply.

1978 was 37 years ago, 1987 was 28 years ago.

The copyright term was changed, effective Jan 1, 1978, not 1987.

Prior to 1978, copyright terms were renewable terms of 28 years. After 1978, copyright terms are much, much longer.

Not exactly. Or at the very least stating it like that that kind of skews the whole 67 year renew from '22 to '78, much less it being an auto-renew from '64 to '78.

But it's sort of besides the point that PRMan is trying to make, which is willfully taking a stance that the changes in the law are [morally/ethically] wrong and that they won't be respecting them, even if that makes their actions technically illegal.

There are some points that could be made as to what degree this ends up being only self serving if it's not being used to create new art based on the prior art while disregarding the copyright, but honestly I'm not sure I really care, so long as the concept that it is a stance willfully disregarding current law is kept in mind, and not some fairytale where it will somehow be ok, like "automatic" abandonment (there is such a thing as abondment, but only when the copyright owner specifically declares they are abandoning their rights to their work, it's not just something that happens when they stop publishing).

Could it be that these games don't sell as well as people on the internet think? I mean, some of the classics probably make decent sells, but the rest don't cover the cost of putting it there.

That's probably true if each game has to be tested and licensed manually. If you just wrapped an emulator around the roms and licensed them by publisher, it may be a bit easier, but I'm not sure about how publishers would react to that.

So I guess I shouldn't expect Super Metroid to ever make the jump from Wii U to 3ds?

Pretty sure SNES titles were never going to make it to the 3DS anyway, certainly the original 3DS/XL/2DS wouldn't have the power to run them to the standard Nintendo would want them to run at. (New 3DS probably has enough power but I doubt Nintendo would want to segment the market so strongly as to limit SNES Virtual Console to New 3DS systems only.)

I believe you are vastly overestimating the hardware of the original SNES. I recommend consulting Wikipedia for various systems' processing power. The DS line may have crappy resolution by today's smartphone standards, but they are generations ahead of 1990-1 technology.

It depends on the precision and accuracy you're looking for. Someone once did the math on doing full-speed simulation of an NES and came out a bit over 3 GHz. Anything below that and you gradually get more and more minor differences that may or may not affect a given game. Some NES games are un-playable on popular emulators because of obscure race conditions that happen to work out in the actual hardware, but the emulators just gloss over and mess up. And that's for an NES. I wonder what the numbers would come out to for an SNES.

Edit: Malth later points out an Ars article which might be the one I was thinking of, in which case it was an SNES that takes 3 GHz.